Khan Kluay - American Release

American Release

The film was released in the U.S .on September 2, 2008, under the Jim Henson Company and The Weinstein Company name. Like other foreign animated films like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and many others, this was released as a direct to video film. The film was also renamed The Blue Elephant for its American release. The film was also redubbed with celebrity voice overs, including Martin Short, Miranda Cosgrove, and Carl Reiner. Some of the drawbacks with the American dub compared with the original(which was made in Thailand) are that some scenes that were in the Thai version were deleted in the American version,not explaining all of the important information. The general storyline was correct, however,the dubbed lines were very inaccurate as well as poorly written;For the most part,the translators of Khan Kluay did not even make an effort to have the characters say sentences that were even close to the lines actually stated in the Thailand film. In addition, characters' names (except for Khan Kluay's) were changed from the actual ones to names that are very similar to Khan Kluay's. For example, in the Thai version, the female pink elephant that Khan Kluay meets is named Chaba Kaew, but in the American one her name is then made Kon Suay. Khan Kluay's parents were also given the names Nuan (Khan Kluay's mother) and Pran (Khan Kluay's father).